Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Our last surgery, we pray

The boys and I got into town in record time despite stopping on the side of the road twice to go poop, lucky for me we have a portable potty that they were excited to use. That’s right folks the twins took a dump on the side of the road inside the van in a little potty, and they loved it. The wan was aired out in a few seconds, thanks to the 75mph wind coming through the window, and we were no worse for the wear. We had another bathroom break when I had to get gas, and one more to go pee, the funny part is it was literally a few seconds after we passed the rest stop so again I had to pull over and make use of the 32oz Burger King Cup on the side of the road. After the first trip back home I learned that when the Twinkies say I have to pee, they mean I have to pee now, and if you don’t pull over within a minute or two, I will pee myself.


Zane and Israel were so excited to see their mommy that they would start screaming with excitement while kicking their legs, thrashing their arms and chanting “Gonna see Mommy, Gonna see Xander, Mommy, Xander, ect… It was quite the drive, filled with entertainment from the back row of the van. When we arrived at the hospital they knew exactly where to go, kind of sad really, and raced to see who would push the handicap buttons (For the doors) or the elevator buttons. They knew what buttons to push and knew the exact path to take; upon reaching the 3rd floor they sprinted to the PICU. When we got to the PICU I tried to tell them to walk, to no avail, and Sarah could hear their little pitter patters and was ready to meet them at the door. What followed next was about 15 minutes of nonstop hugs, kisses and I love you(s); I am pretty sure that X didn’t let go of me for that entire time, and would randomly kiss me on whatever part of my face he could get to quickly. It felt good to be back, although no necessarily in the hospital, but with all of us together again.

Sarah and the boys went back to the RMH and X and I stayed together to catch up, unfortunately he fell asleep before we were able to do that, as his medicine kicked in, and I was left to watch TV all by myself. I was exhausted but unable to fall asleep; I stayed up until about 1:30am and then only fell asleep for about an hour before he started his itching phase. I had to wake him up, not an easy task and fought with him for about 15 minutes to take his medicine. After that I stayed awake until about 3am. I was awaken by the nurse at 5:45am and told they were going to get ready to take him in about 30 minutes; I fell back asleep until Sarah arrived around 6:55. A few minutes later the Dr.’s started to arrive and we woke X up, again he was irritated at the fact he was woken up and refused to take his “cocktail” to ease his stress. He had worked himself up into such a frenzied state that I had to pick him up and take him back to the room to calm him down; the ride to the ER was much calmer, but I knew he was a time bomb ready to explode. X picked Sarah to go with him back to the OR, I think he was still mad at me for making him calm down, and Sarah later told me he fought the “Mask” the whole way, they were forced to restrain him and he loudly expressed his disapproval.

Sarah and I went back to the RMH and slept until we were called and notified that our surgeon was ready to meet with us. We raced back to the hospital and met with our surgeon, Dr. Wetjen, and he explained to us, for the fourth time, how the operation went. No complications, everything went well, they actually washed his brain, kind of weird and gross, the reason being, his brain had the grids on for such a long time they wanted to clean it so the risk of infection would be less. Our greatest risk now, besides the seizure tricking us and being dormant, is infection. He has a higher risk of that due to the amount of operations he has had, X will remain on antibiotics for the remainder of his stay and will go home with at least a week’s supply.

I asked how many staples or stitches he received, and the Dr. looked at me with a smile and said “There are so many, that we don’t even count them”. I was a bit surprised at that, but then again I can only imagine he must be right since X has stitches on the inside and outside of his head. The stitches will be different this time, they will be nylon as opposed to dissolvable, they were all worried that dissolvable ones would not hold everything in place, again this is due to the amount to operations he has had. They explained that the stitch was an on-going stitch, like a baseball, and that this ensures a tighter hold, and less risk of unraveling. I thought “Nice, I would hate for his head to unravel on us”. His bone was fused back together and now is being held tightly by titanium plates, I asked if that was going to be an issue later in life for X-Rays, MRI’s, Plane trips (Metal detectors) ect.; he again smiled and explained that it was not going to be an issue. I asked about falling and hitting his head, he told us not to worry about it unless it is within a month of this operation; the bone is being held together so tightly that it is almost like nothing had ever happened. He went on to say that it would take a fairly hard fall to loosen the bond, but if that were to happen to take him in to be looked at. He then explained that removing the stitches was not going to be a pleasant event, yet another thing to look forward to.

For the first time ever I heard him explain to us that Xander’s case was a very odd case, and that after talking to other surgeons and Dr.’s about it they had never seen one quite like it. This was all in regards to his seizures just disappearing, I thought to myself “God please don’t let us be disappointed again, I believe this is the end of them (Seizures)”. He then told us that he was going to remain optimistic that Xander is going to be seizure free, Sarah replied something to the effect of “Yeah, we’ll just wait on that one”, and he replied “No I really think you should remain optimistic about it, this case is not like one we’ve seen before”. There was some more conversation after that, but nothing of too much importance.

We are now waiting in Xander’s PICU room, anxiously awaiting his return, Sarah is sleeping (Poor girl needs it) and I am updating this blog so all our friends and family can know what is going on. I will try to post another one this afternoon, but the internet at the hospital has been so bad, that we can only get on for a few minutes before it freezes. The staff here told us it does that from time to time due to the amount of people in the hospital trying to use it all at once. Pray for a fast and healthy recovery so we can go home and begin our normal routine again. Thanks for all of your love and support, I say it a lot, but we are really blessed to have so many great people in our lives, and loving our boy(s) with us.

3 comments:

  1. I am so happy... Thanks so much for the update. I can't wait to squeeze him! Can't wait for you all to be home... PS. Love the poop story... XOXO

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  2. We continue to pray for all of you. Can't wait til you get to go back to Omaha and stay there!

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  3. Praise the Lord. We are so happy to hear that all went well and that he is recovering now (as well as Sarah). We will cling to the hope of a complete healing but know that the Lord has His perfect will all laid out for each of our lives.

    I can't wait to hear of the news of when you will be able to travel home together as a complete family and begin this next chapter in your lives.

    You are continuously in our prayers and the prayers of countless many others. Even though it may seem like quiet times about the prayers you folks are on so many church's prayer lines and on the daily prayer lists of many many individuals around the globe.

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